“Such Eventful Times”: Women and the American Civil War

100% Complete


Completed Pages: 4,638
Registered Contributors: 439
Launched March 8, 2023 and completed May 14, 2023.
The American Civil War (1861-1865) drew women into the conflict in a myriad of ways. Wives and mothers tried to keep their families together on the home front, while sustaining relationships with men in the field. Some women left their own families behind to tend to the needs of soldiers on the front lines. Women displaced by war in the Confederacy navigated a world full of disruptions to the old political, economic, and social systems, which in turn presented enslaved women with new opportunities for freedom. Few women who lived through the Civil War era remained untouched by the conflict, and their letters, diaries, and other personal papers document how each woman experienced the war in her own way.

Explore the worlds of women like Mary Ann Arnold, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Betty Herndon Maury, and Dora Stephens to discover how the Civil War and its legacy influenced their lives.